Perfect Parents Don’t Exist,
And Neither Do Perfect Children –
And That’s What We Call A Family

Perfect Parents don’t exist, so accept your limitations and go forward with your parenting life from there.

If it’s any consolation, nobody can raise perfect children either so at least that evens the score a bit.

I do think there was one account of Perfect Parents that comes to us from antiquity. These parents raised unicorns with the help of a local leprechaun clan and sold them to a village of Cyclops who used them to jump over the moon in order to harvest cheese for their salads.

Actually, none of those things ever existed, including that part about the existence of Perfect Parents.

Though parenting is difficult and often challenging, it is meant to be fun, rewarding and exciting as you get to spend your precious time and effort loving, guiding, and caring for smaller versions of yourself; children and people YOU helped to create and whom you helped to bring into this world.

Parenting Styles vary, family circumstances vary, and even the amount of time and finances that you have to devote to parenting can vary from time to time, but the fact that you ARE a parent should never be lost in the everyday events that can so easily cloud our minds and cause us to lose sight of what a blessing it is to have children, and to be their parent.

Even if you are Parenting a Teenager at the present time, trust me, it IS a privilege and a joy for you to be their parent, even on those days when you can’t remember why.

SO what does all this have to do with Perfect Parents, and why is this Web page associated with the Parenting Forums and not with some other area within this Parenting Action Guide?

There must be some kind of connection to all of this. Right?

W Family Portrait - © Christine {cbszeto}

Take a good look for example at the picture of this family presented above.

I choose it because this family is flat out beautiful (at least when I look at them in this picture they are to me). They look about as happy as can be, and I would love to have a family just like them, full of happy smiles and sunshine and all the rest.

I really don’t know the people in this picture, but if I had to guess what perfect parents looked like, I would say the parents in the picture look like it to me. Heck, the whole family looks like a perfect family for all I know.

And that is the point; they may look like Perfect Parents with a perfect family but we all know that perfect parents and perfect families don’t exist. If they did, we all know our children wouldn’t want to live in one of them anyways; being imperfectly human is SO MUCH MORE FUN!

Behind the happy picture is a real family with real problems and real concerns, just like EVERY OTHER family in the world.

I am sure that at times this dad loses his temper, even if it be but mildly, and that this mom feels overwhelmed and stressed when things go awry, as they often do. And the smiles on those children inevitably turn into tears of hurt, or frustration, or aggravation, or one of a thousand other human emotions that children and adults can feel to cause us to feel sad and want to cry.

Just remembering that there are no Perfect Parents allows you to relax and stop beating yourself up over every little parental imperfection you might notice in yourself.

Your children love and want YOU to be their parent, and they don’t know that you don’t have all of the answers yet (unless your children are Preteens or older), in which case they are beginning to see imperfections in everyone, as it should be.

So many people are so afraid to admit a mistake that they box themselves into a corner of having to always be right; to somehow try to be perfect.

This is no way to live and you certainly don’t want to pass that negative character trait onto your children, so find the courage to realize that you are NOT perfect, and that is perfectly acceptable and OK and fine.

One of the most liberating things I can, and often do, is to readily admit a mistake or error I may have made and then say “That’s right. I am NOT perfect. I guess you now know I make mistakes so you don’t have to expect perfection from me in the future, and I won’t expect it from you either.”

Admitting you are only human frees you from unrealistic expectations and allows you to be happier and more realistic with yourself and with others, including your own children and spouse. This in turn helps you to re-discover the Parenting Fun that should be a constant and uplifting part of your everyday parenting experiences.

Note: Just because we are not Perfect Parents does not give us an excuse to be less than who or what we should be. It only means that we realize perfection is out of our mortal reach, but we still need to keep striving to be the best people and parents to our children that we possibly can be.

(I know, I know – It just NEVER stops, does it?)

Well no, but welcome to the real world and a major reason why it is so much fun to be alive.

I once knew a man who would say, “Show your strengths to your fellow men and your weaknesses to God in prayer”. I like this saying as it recognizes that we all have strengths, we all have weaknesses, and we all need to do the best we can to make the most of what we are and what we are striving to become. This is doubly relevant in the realm of quality parenting.

And now for the answer to what the notion of Perfect Parents has to do with our most useful and entertaining Parenting Forums.

It has come to my attention that some of you actually think that since you have made parenting mistakes, or since you have not raised perfect children yourself (which we all know is not possible), that you have no right to post Parenting Stories into our Parenting Forums.

I have heard that some of you just don’t feel worthy to do so.

Nothing could be further from the truth and let me dispel this myth in two paragraphs or less.

If you went to the Parenting Forums and read a story about the Perfect Parents who have the perfect children who never have any family challenges to speak of, how would you react and relate to such a story as this?

Exactly.

(I actually proved my point in a paragraph and a word – Not Too Poor Of A Showing :-) )

You would read that Perfect Parent story and wonder what planet these people were from?

So don’t be shy about sharing a Parenting Story on our Parenting Forums.

I promise you that no Perfect Parents will ever post a story here or anywhere else in this world.

And if you do take the time to read a Parenting Story, please take an extra moment to leave a comment as the Parent who wrote the story would love to hear what you thought of the same.

As this PSA from The Ad Council points out: You don’t have to be perfect, to be a Perfect Parent.

That indeed is heartening since there are no such things as ‘Perfect Parents’, only dedicated and loving parents who selflessly give of themselves for the benefit of their children, in the best way they know how, day after day and for the rest of their lives.

(Hint: And therein lays a great secret to a very happy life!)

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